Jalen stared at the system prompt in front of him. It was just like any other notification, the usual blue text materializing on his screen—cold and impersonal, as always. The usual patterns were there—nothing alarming. But something felt… off. There was a weight to it, something that gnawed at the back of his mind.
[System Prompt]
The deck evolves. Cards now reflect your growth.
The path ahead requires strength. Are you prepared to forge ahead?
Jalen blinked, his fingers hovering over the interface. It was… nothing new. But why couldn’t he shake the feeling that something wasn’t quite right? The words were too simple, too neutral. His thoughts felt clouded, like he was on the edge of understanding something, but it kept slipping through his fingers.
As he leaned forward to confirm his selection, something unusual happened. The blue text on the screen flickered for just a moment. It was almost imperceptible—a shimmer, a shift. Jalen furrowed his brow, his hand pausing.
It didn’t happen again. Or at least, not in a way he could see.
He clicked on the “Continue” option, still feeling that nagging unease creeping up his spine. The blue prompt remained unchanged, but he couldn’t ignore the sensation that something was watching him, something just beyond the reach of his awareness.
Then, escaping Jalen’s notice, the words began to warp.
[Golden Text: Visible Only to the Reader]
I’m just a wee bit disappointed you have ####### eyes when you are surprised. The facial expressions when you first saw your class reminded me so much of her. She used to love those crimson eyes.
The moment the reader entered the golden text, everything around them shifted. The world blurred, folding in on itself like the turning of a page, and in a flash, they found themselves standing in a place that felt completely foreign. The steady hum of digital noise faded away, replaced by a chilling silence.
Before them, the golden text from the system prompt dissolved into nothingness, and in its place, an immense, shadowed room loomed. The air was thick, heavy with the weight of something unseen, yet undeniably present. The only source of light came from a single monitor—a stark contrast to the overwhelming darkness of the room. Its screen glowed with a strange, ethereal light, and the words still pulsed there, faint but familiar.
A low, unsettling presence filled the room. The monitor stood on a pedestal, its cold light casting strange, elongated shadows on the floor. But what drew the eye wasn’t the screen—it was the figure standing just beside it.
The figure was massive, its form shrouded in darkness so deep it felt like the shadows themselves were alive. Only a pair of glowing red eyes pierced through the blackness, their intensity so fierce that they seemed to burn into the very fabric of the space. The eyes locked onto the monitor, watching Jalen with a single-minded focus. Then, one of those burning eyes shifted toward the reader, acknowledging them with a slow, deliberate nod before turning back to the screen.
Despite the figure’s immense size, it remained motionless, as if frozen in time. But the red eyes—those eyes—betrayed an intelligence, a presence that felt like it was observing the reader, waiting for something.
“So, what are you doing here, old friend? Ever since you disappeared the first time, beings have been chasing your traces. Now you’re back to your old stalking, 3,000 years later. I never heard you speak before, but now you will. Why are you following this one in particular? I guess it’s the same reason I am. He acts just like her, doesn’t he?”
The deep voice echoed through the space, vibrating in the reader’s chest as if the words themselves carried weight. The figure tilted its head slightly, as if considering something, then returned its full attention to the monitor.
Another golden text flickered to life on the screen, the only parting acknowledgment from the massive figure.
[Golden Text]
I guess you’ll be headed back soon. It was nice meeting you again, old friend.
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
Then, the world folded again, collapsing into itself. The golden text disappeared entirely, and the darkness dissolved into a familiar hum.
Jalen blinked. The system prompt in front of him remained unchanged, the blue text as cold and impersonal as ever. He shook his head, a faint headache tugging at the edges of his awareness. He couldn’t tell what had just happened—or if anything had happened at all.
Still, the unsettling feeling persisted. Something had shifted, even if he couldn’t put his finger on it. Shrugging it off, Jalen leaned forward and finally hit “Continue.”
The screen flickered one last time.
[System Update: Card Evolution Complete]
The following cards have evolved:
•Aqueous Serpent
•Effect Update:
•Synergy with water-based cards: Boosts potency by 10%.
•Environmental Power: Strength scales with the size and depth of the body of water it inhabits.
•Mana Stabilizer
•Effect Update:
•Mana Flow: Greatly increases mana regeneration and reduces spell costs during activation.
•Stabilizing Aura: Temporarily negates negative mana debuffs.
“That’s interesting,” Jalen murmured. “System, show status menu.”
[Statistics]
•Level: 1 (Exp 5/25)
•Life Force: 11 (Tier 1)
•Intelligence: 14 (Tier 1)
•Physical Power: 5 (Tier 0)
•Physique: 2 (Tier 0)
•Dexterity: 2 (Tier 0)
•Magic Power: 14 (Tier 1) (-5)
•Mana: 95/120
•Mana Regeneration: 1.0/minute
[Status Debuff Detected: Overextension]
•Mana regeneration reduced by 50%.
•Physical performance slightly impaired.
•Duration remaining: 1 hour, 9 minutes.
“Ok, just an hour and some change until I don’t feel so tired. I’ll take the cards and destroy the puppets. Wait a second—where are the puppets?”
Looking again, I noticed that half of them were already destroyed. “Ember, what happened to them?”
The salamander, dog-sized and as smug as ever, stood on two legs and crossed his tiny arms. “I told you—I used to win every fight in Spirit Garden. They picked a fight, so I beat them up. Now, pick me up.” Ember reached out expectantly.
I stared at him in disbelief. “So why didn’t you do that in the first place?”
He gave me a pointed look as I bent to pick him up.
Jalen held the smug salamander in his arms, its bronze scales warm to the touch. The cards in his hand shimmered with a faint metallic glow. The updated effects of the Aqueous Serpent and Mana Stabilizer lingered in his thoughts, their possibilities endless.
Around him, the battlefield was a mess. Charred heaps of ash and melted mounds of debris were all that remained of the puppets. Ember flicked his tail lazily, his crimson eyes practically twinkling with satisfaction.
“Seriously,” Jalen muttered, surveying the destruction. “You could’ve done that from the start. We wouldn’t even be here right now.”
Ember puffed out a small plume of smoke, his tone as casual as his stance. “If you had asked me to, I would have. But you didn’t ask—you just assumed I couldn’t.”
Jalen let out a resigned sigh. “You’re right. I’m sorry. I didn’t think you had it in you, Ember.”
The salamander gave a satisfied snort, another puff of sulfur-laced smoke escaping his nostrils. “Apology accepted, Jalen. Next time, remember—there’s more to me than just looking adorable and playing with fire.”
Setting Ember down, Jalen reached for his deck. “Let’s see if I can draw one of the new cards.”
Pulling out his deck, five cards shot out and floated directly above his hands. Their shimmering bronze outlines caught the light as they hovered, waiting.
“Alright, let’s see… Basic Water Spirit, Spirit Sword, Thunderbolt, Energy of the Spirits…” Jalen’s gaze landed on one of the new cards. “And there it is—the Aqueous Serpent.”
He stacked the cards in his right hand before pulling one into his left to examine more closely. The design was simple—a perfect circle. As Jalen focused, a glowing screen materialized above the card.
The first card depicted a small blue slime, its form shifting slightly in the holographic light.
[Name: Basic Water Spirit]
[Type: Summon]
[Subtypes: Creature, Phantom]
[Summoning Cost: 1 Mana]
[Activation Cost: 1 Energy]
[Effect: Summon a Water Spirit. Lasts for 4 turns. Has a Resilience of 15 and a Physical Power of 4.]
“So it’s just like Ember,” Jalen mused. “I guess I’ll move on to the next one.”
He flipped to the next card. This one bore the image of a gleaming sword surrounded by swirling, ethereal energy.
[Name: Spirit Sword]
[Type: Summon]
[Subtypes: Equipment, Weapon]
[Summoning Cost: 1 Mana]
[Activation Cost: 1 Energy]
[Effect: Equips a spirit sword. Lasts for 8 turns. Can temporarily transform into a spirit weapon.]
“Huh. Isn’t it already a spirit weapon? What’s the difference?” Jalen frowned. “I’ll have to figure that out later.”
The next card was simpler—just a yellow bolt of mana, crackling with energy.
[Name: Thunderbolt]
[Type: Spell]
[Summoning Cost: 1 Mana]
[Activation Cost: 1 Energy]
[Effect: Fire a bolt of thunder mana. Deals damage equal to Magic Power.]
Jalen’s eyes lit up. “If my Magic Power is 14, then this card inflicts 14 damage. I need to see how much a point of damage is worth, but this definitely looks like my best offensive option so far.”
The fourth card was far more intricate. It depicted a circle of spirits holding hands beneath a massive sun, its light so overwhelming that it nearly drowned out the rest of the image.
[Name: Energy of the Spirits]
[Type: Energy]
[Summoning Cost: 1 Mana]
[Activation Cost: Free]
[Effect: Generate 2 Energy, and next turn, generate additional energy equal to the number of spirits you control.]
“So this card solves my energy problem,” Jalen said, nodding thoughtfully. “Generating energy based on the number of spirits I have… The sun makes me think there’s some deeper meaning behind how this card was created.”